[WikiEN-l] Re: Images on Answers.com and copyright conditions

Thu Mar 31 18:28:26 UTC 2005

Answers.com response to my query (below):

On 31 Mar 2005, at 11:26 am, GuruNet Support wrote:

> Dear Christiaan,
>
> Thank you for contacting GuruNet.
>
> We really appreciate your bringing this to our attention, Christiaan,  
> and have forwarded your message to our Engineering Team. The problem  
> is that we are working from a dump of Wikipedia content, but  
> apparently, there is no dump of the Commons data. However, our  
> engineers are aware of the problem and are looking into a solution  
> that will work best all around.
>
> We'll let you know when we've deployed a solution to this problem.  
> Similarly, if you could keep us informed of any development at  
> Wikipedia regarding this matter, we'd really appreciate it.
>
> If we can be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate to  
> contact us.
>
> Sincerely yours,
> Alan Baklor
> GuruNet Customer Support
> http://www.gurunet.com
> The Answer Engine

> On 28 Mar 2005, at 1:32 am, Christiaan Briggs wrote:
>
>> I sent them the following message via  
>> http://www.answers.com/main/contact_us.jsp
>>
>> To whom it concerns,
>>
>> I'm writing regarding copyright conditions of images from  
>> Wikipedia.org used on Answers.com
>>
>> I noticed recently that many of the Wikipedia images used on  
>> Answers.com do not appear to follow copyright conditions (such as  
>> crediting authors):
>> http://www.answers.com/library/Wikipedia+Images
>>
>> From what I can tell this problem is restricted to images that are  
>> uploaded to Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org (rather  
>> than directly to Wikipedia), which results in there only being a link  
>> to the relevant Wikimedia Commons page rather than a full description  
>> on the Wikipedia page.
>>
>> So for instance this image includes relevant info because it was  
>> uploaded directly to Wikipedia (and hence the description was added  
>> directly to its Wikipedia page):
>> http://www.answers.com/topic/broads-jpg
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Broads.jpg
>>
>> However this image does not include image info (and nor, for that  
>> matter, does it include the link to the relevant Wikimedia Commons  
>> page):
>> http://www.answers.com/topic/bees-collecting-pollen-2004-08-14-jpg
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bees_Collecting_Pollen_2004-08 
>> -14.jpg
>> The info of which you will find by following the link on the page  
>> above to:
>> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Bees_Collecting_Pollen_2004 
>> -08-14.jpg
>>
>> This is obviously not an ideal situation from our point of view, as  
>> we'd like to have the image info on the Wikipedia image page and not  
>> have to direct people to another page, however, for various reasons,  
>> we're stuck with the current setup, which looks to have resulted in a  
>> technical hitch causing Answers.com not to follow licence conditions.
>>
>> I'm wouldn't have a foggiest clue about the mechanics of this process  
>> but it seems to me that, until Wikipedia deals with this issue at  
>> their end, Answers.com still needs to deal with the issue at their  
>> end, meaning Answers.com needs to pull the relevant image info from  
>> Wikimedia Commons when appropriate (as per the second example above).
>>
>> I'm in contact with administrators and other editors via a Wikipedia  
>> emailing list, so I will be sure to pass on any response you send me.
>>
>> Thanks for your time,
>> Christiaan Briggs
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Christiaan